Polwart.. your quoted statistics don't say that... only between the last two recorded years published.. hardly a trend... since '97 what has the trend been?

In the period since 1997 the police have changed the way they record the statistics 3 times... ...so any comparison of the direct numbers could be misleading. However:

Crimes using "immitation weapons" have risen consistently since the term was introduced in 1999.

Crimes using handguns have fallen for the last two recorded years (but did rise in the late 90's) - there isn't enough information to know if this fluctuation is normal / random or a trend.

Because the way the police record the stats changed, it seems that the home office are preferring to compare the % of all crimes that involved guns rather than the absolute number. This doesn't seem innapropriate to me, although it could be a fudge!

in the 10 years to 2003/04 the change in the % of total crime that involved firearms in 0.1%. I would suggest that this is not a significant increase.

The figures are also broken down to include each type of crime (e.g. offences against person, criminal damage, robbery etc). All are now at lower levels (as % involving guns of the total crime) than they were 10 years before, with the exception of criminal damage (these figures include air gun crime which accounts for much of this).

Finally firearm related mortality in England and Wales remains the lowest (0.3 per 100,000 population per annum) in anywhere in the developed world with the exception of Japan (0.1 per 100,000 population per annum). [this excludes luxemburg and malta where this value is not reported - presumably due to the small populations]

All this information came from - Home Office website, and various links therefrom - including the UK Office of Statistics.

If all this is the case why are more and more of our Police carrying guns?

I would suggest you address that question to your MP (and/or MWA, if they have power over policing in Wales). Afterall these are official government statistics.

To be honest, outside airports etc. we don't see much armed police up here. If you are referring to the Met being armed - well they do have about 1/3 of the whole of England and Wales gun crime in their area!

Do you think it is a good idea to teach a small girl to use a machine gun?

I have a daughter and I think
Showing them what a weapon will do and operating it gives them a real sense of what it can do and just how dangerous they really are. I would rather my daughter know this about weapons, unlike the morons in Hollywood who will glamourize death and violence from/with firearms just for the sake of the almightly dollar and then turn around and say we have to do something about gun violence! Duh!!! You are promoting it in damn near every movie you make! I do not want her to think such things (firearms) are some kind of make believe, educated versus uneducated, I believe is best. That being said, very little time is spent on guns, it is dad's interest, not hers. I also want her to know it is very dangerous crossing busy streets, you don't play with fire, and you always wear a life jacket on boats. Yes, boats are dangerous too, in their own way.

Cobblers... typical reaction from someone who knows feck' all about firearms.. when did you see a pistol like a Hammerli free pistol used for any thing other than target shooting.. or a Webley and Scott .22 break top single shot? Neither pistol was as "deadly" as (still unlicensed and available) bows, yet you say they were designed for "killing" ?
Don't get me wrong, Dunblane was a feckin' tragedy of epic proportion.. but... and it's a big but.... it could have been prevented with legislation that was in place already.... how many people know that that fecka Hamilton had already been found in possession ILLEGALY.. and that his FAO had recommended that he had his renewal turned down?... over ridden by a senior officer who didn't want the hassle? What happened to that senior officer?... retired with his pension in tact, quietly?